Juan Lopez de, a famous Spanish patriot, was the eldest son of the commendantor of Castile, and was born in Toledo towards the close of the fifteenth century. He grew up a brave, high-souled, and patriotic citizen, and only waited for an opportunity to play a distinguished part in the history of his country. This opportunity was soon brought about by the series of events which followed the accession of Charles V. to the crown of Spain. The entire administration during the absence of the king was placed in the hands of his Flemish favourites. A Flemish cardinal, Adrian of Utrecht, held the regency; Flemish courtiers sold the offices of state to the highest bidders; and Flemish Padilla, place-hunters, after a short and lucrative sojourn, carried the wealth of Spain home to their own country. Incensed at this system of oppressive misrule, the rich and powerful cities of Castile laid before Charles, by the hands of their deputies, a long list of grievances; and finding that their claims were treated with silent neglect, they took up arms in vindication of their rights in 1522. It was then that Juan Lopez de Padilla appeared in the arena of history as the leader of the citizens of Toledo, and the most zealous promoter of the cause of the general insurrection. His first act was to form the deputies of the several towns into an association under the name of the "Holy Junta," which should take charge of the general interests of the people. Then proceeding at the head of a body of troops to Tordesillas, the residence of Joanna, the imbecile grandmother of the king, he succeeded in gaining admittance into the town, obtaining an audience of the queen, and exacting from her a sanction to do whatever should be necessary for the public welfare. His next enterprise was to strip the regent of the authority and ensigns of government. He marched to Tordesillas, the seat of the regency, seized upon the treasury books, the archives, and the seals of the kingdom, and left Adrian in the position of a private individual. At this juncture, however, the over-arrogant and injudicious measures of the Junta began to check the successes, and led to the ruin of Padilla. That body, by inserting among their plans of reformation a direct attack upon the power of the nobility, brought upon themselves the armed hostility of the warlike and chivalrous aristocracy of Spain. Not content with one indiscretion, they intrusted the defence and maintenance of their cause to Don Pedro de Giron, an individual who had no recommendation but his high birth. The consequence was, that the army of the nobility was allowed, without opposition, to attack and capture the important town of Tordesillas, and thus to inflict a deadly blow upon the success of the revolution. Again did Padilla assume the chief command, and, by the capture of Torrelodones and other towns, maintain the cause of the Junta. But again did the Junta themselves, by granting a suspension of arms, betray that cause. At the end of the truce, Padilla found that so many of his soldiers had departed to their homes that he could not face the advancing enemy. He retreated towards Toro; the enemy overtook him on a piece of disadvantageous ground near Villalar on the 23rd April 1522; and all his desperate measures and chivalrous valour could not prevent his fatigued and disheartened recruits from yielding before the dashing charge of the royalist cavalry. The hopes of the revolutionists were thus irretrievably ruined. Padilla, resolving not to survive the frustration of Spanish freedom, fought till the very last; but he was carried, captive and wounded, from the field to brave a public execution. On the next day, after addressing to his wife and his native city respectively, two letters full of tender devotion and triumphant heroism, he bravely laid down his life for his country.

Padilla, Doña Maria Pacheco de, the wife of the preceding, proved herself a worthy mate to the leader of the forces of the "Holy Junta." During her husband's life she rendered a bold and active assistance to his warlike enterprise. On his death, she seized the standard of freedom as it fell from his lifeless hand; and although all the other insurgents were cowering in submission before the victorious royalists, she resolved to make Toledo the last citadel of liberty, and to defend it against the whole country. The commanding spirit of the heroine immediately brought into simultaneous action all the devices that could awaken sympathy for herself, or interest in behalf of Spain. She rallied the citizens around her, and kept their enthusiasm ever burning by constantly calling to their remembrance the deeds and death of her husband. She gave a sacred character to the contest by using crucifixes instead of colours, and employing the revenues of the cathedral to defray expenses. She was also continually despatching letters and emissaries to implore assistance from the other cities of Castile, and the French general in Navarre. Thus did Doña Maria for several months, in the face of a powerful government, hold the city of Toledo. At length her influence, which could not be overcome by external force, began to be undermined by internal dissension. The troops, though victorious in several sallies, became hopeless of ultimate success; the mob grew impatient of the rigours of a blockade; the clergy took advantage of this disaffection to accuse the heroine of using witchcraft; and the noble woman was driven out by her ungrateful fellow-citizens.

Yet Doña Maria made a becoming exit off the stage of history. Retreating into the citadel, she held out for four months longer; and not until she had been reduced to the last extremity did she retire into Portugal to pass the rest of her life. (Robertson's Charles V.)